


Bandmates

by littlewitchlover



Category: Radio Rebel (2012)
Genre: Angst, Coming Out, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gay Panic, M/M, Slow Burn, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:14:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25545730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlewitchlover/pseuds/littlewitchlover
Summary: Gabe really wishes that he and Gavin were more than just bandmates.
Relationships: Gavin Morgan/Gabe LaViolet, Tara Adams/Gavin Morgan, Tara Adams/Stacy DeBane
Comments: 9
Kudos: 16





	Bandmates

**Author's Note:**

> I was really surprised to find out that no one had written about these ships yet on ao3, so I decided to be the first.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Are you actually not looking for a girlfriend right now?”  
> “Are you?”

Gabe LaViolet leaned up against his car, waiting for Gavin Morgan. It was part of his regular routine to wait for his friend in the parking lot after school lot so they could go to Gabe’s house for band practice, but something was different about today. 

It was the first day back from winter break, and the first time Gavin was in town since school had let out. Gabe had missed his friend more than he’d ever care to admit, but he was nervous to talk to him. Well, they had talked during lunch, but Gabe had something really important to tell Gavin that he wanted to wait until they were alone to say. Just the thought of it made him want to throw up, though.

He decided to focus on something else for the time being. Like, what was up with all the pop quizzes that day? Usually, one would expect the first day back from a two week break to be easy, but over half of Gabe’s teachers had given him a pop quiz. Not that he minded, because he was able to get a good grade on all of them, but it was a matter of principle. Gabe had a good enough memory that school generally wasn’t a problem for him, but he would have much rather been at home practicing bass or writing another song for The GGGG’s.

“Hey, Gabe!” Gabe looked up to see a girl with blonde hair and glasses walking towards him. “What’re you up to?”

Gabe was confused. He wasn’t friends with this girl, was he? He recognized her from somewhere (math class maybe?), but he wasn’t quite sure. Why would she walk up to him like this? God, he was so awkward when it came to girls. Where was Gavin? This was his area of expertise, not Gabe’s.

“Oh, I’m just, uh, waiting for a friend,” he responded, giving what he hoped was a friendly smile. He would have to get way better at the whole talking to girls thing if he wanted to be the frontman of The GGGG’s.

The girl twirled a stand of hair around her finger and nodded. “Uh huh. Say, do you have a girlfriend?”

“What?” That was such a random question to ask. What kind of person-

Oh. Right. She was flirting with him. Gabe mentally slapped himself in the face.

She frowned. “Sorry if that was a dumb question to ask.”

“No, no! You’re fine, it’s a perfectly valid question. Um, no, I don’t have a girlfriend, but I-I’m not really looking for one at the moment.” The girl sucked in a breath and slowly let it out. Gabe immediately felt bad. “Uh, sorry. I’m still really flattered that you asked!”   
  


“Yeah, whatever. See you in physics.” She turned on her heel and walked to her car. Physics, not math.

Gabe groaned and ran a hand through his hair. He hadn’t lied about anything, but it seemed like the girl (whose name he couldn’t remember) didn’t believe him. 

“That was awkward.”

Gabe heard his trunk close and turned to see Gavin standing next to the car. Gabe had been so distracted by the odd encounter with the girl that he hadn’t noticed Gavin putting his bike in the trunk. “Dude, I’ve been waiting for you for, like, ten minutes! You couldn’t have said something a little sooner?”

“Nah, it was kind of funny to watch you struggle,” Gavin laughed.

“Asshole. Get in the car.”

Gavin raised one hand in defense but did as he was told. “You seem extra bossy today, what’s up?” He tossed his backpack into the backseat as Gabe got into the car and started the engine. “Is this about me missing your New Year’s Eve party? It wasn’t my choice. If I could have, I would’ve stayed here. Even though I love my extended family, it’s ridiculously  _ cold  _ in Canada, and-”

“Gavin, Gavin, it’s okay,” Gabe reassured him. Gavin was the type of person who would apologize a million times and still feel bad about what he did, even if he did nothing wrong. “This is the fifth time you’ve apologized  _ today.  _ I forgive you.”

Gabe pulled out of the parking space and drove out onto the main road. “I take it your trip didn’t go that well then?”

“No, it went fine. It was good to see my cousins again, but I wish I had been here. Judging by all the stuff I heard, your party was pretty fun.”

Gabe shrugged. It was actually incredibly anxiety inducing to organize a party that included over half the school, but he wasn’t going to admit that he had a panic attack just because of a party. “It was alright, I guess. Not the same without you, though.” He glanced at his friend in the passenger’s seat, who just smiled.

“If you say so. I have your Christmas present in my backpack. I figured I‘d give it to you once we got to your house.”

“I thought you said you didn’t get me anything! You’re lucky that I got you something anyway.” Gabe’s stomach did a flip. He had something that he wanted to say that went along with his present, but he didn’t know if he would be able to say it.

“Yeah, I figured that would happen.”

Gabe turned on the radio and set the station to something he and Gavin would both like. After a couple minutes of silence (besides the radio playing), Gavin spoke again. “Are you actually not looking for a girlfriend right now?”

Gabe groaned. “No, I’m not. Are  _ you _ ?”

Gavin shrugged. “If a girl asked me out I’d probably say yes, but I’m not actively looking for one.” 

Gabe sighed as he turned off of the main road and into his neighborhood.

“What? Did I say something wrong?”

“Nah, I was just thinking about something. It’s been a long day,” Gabe turned into his driveway and parked the car.

The boys grabbed their bags and went inside. Gabe’s mom greeted them. “Gavin! It’s been a while since we’ve seen you. How was your trip?”   
  


“It was pretty fun. I haven’t seen my dad’s side of the family in a while, so it was nice to see them again.”

“That’s great-”

“We’re gonna head upstairs to exchange gifts before the other guys get here,” Gabe said, referring to the other members of their band. He felt bad about cutting his mom off, but he was anxious to give Gavin his present. He gave a look to his mother as Gavin headed upstairs.

“Good luck,” his mom mouthed to him, understanding what was going on.

Gabe smiled and took a deep breath, following after Gavin. They went into Gabe’s room and threw their bags on the floor. Gabe shut the door behind them.

“Don’t look yet! I didn’t get a chance to wrap it. It’s alright if I give you my gift first, right,” Gavin asked.

“Yeah, of course,” Gabe said, sitting on his bed. He put his hands over his eyes, trying not to giggle at how stupid he felt by doing so.

He felt Gavin sit next to him and set something in his lap. “Okay, you can look now.”

Gabe removed his hands from his eyes and… he wasn’t quite sure what he was looking at. Well, he knew what it was, but he didn’t know what to make of it. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again. He looked at Gavin, who burst out laughing.

“It’s a joke gift, don’t worry. I would never seriously give you a red plaid fedora.”

“Oh thank god,” Gabe said. “I mean, it’s not so bad, I’m sure there’s someone who would like it.”

“I doubt it,” Gavin said. “Let me grab your actual gift.” He reached back into his bag. Gabe turned away and tossed the hat onto his dresser. “Here,” Gavin handed him a small box.

Gabe stared at it for a moment before opening it. He smiled wide when he saw what it was. He slowly lifted the necklace out of the box. “Gavin…”

There was nothing particularly special about the necklace. It was a simple white chord with a black guitar pick on the end, but it meant the world to Gabe. “How did you know? I don’t remember telling anyone about wanting this.”

Gavin smiled. “I saw you looking at it when we went to buy extra strings that one time at the music shop, and it was still there when I went to the mall to get your gift. Look at the back of it.”

Gabe turned it over to see a small “G + G” engraving on it. “I thought it was a nice touch,” Gavin said. “It’s not weird to give your bandmate a friendship necklace, is it?”

“No, not at all.” Gabe couldn’t stop smiling. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now, how about my present,” he asked, rubbing his hands together.

Gabe laughed and walked over to his closet. “And  _ I’m _ the bossy one.” He opened the door, and pulled out two wrapped objects. “Uh, here. Open this one first.” He handed Gavin a tube shaped present.

Gavin unwrapped it as Gabe sat back down on the bed next to him. He gasped when he opened the container to reveal a signed poster from his favorite band, Red Letter Day. “How did you get this?”

“I know a guy.”

Gavin unrolled the poster all the way, squinted at the signature, then looked at Gabe in awe. “It must be worth so much-”

“Don’t worry about it, Gav. It’s worth it for you.”

“Not to mention you got me another gift, too!”

Gabe felt like he was going to throw up. Right. The other gift. “It’s nothing, really,” he said, trying not to let his hand shake as he handed the other gift, a small wrapped box, to Gavin.

Gavin unwrapped the present. Oh god, Gabe could hardly breathe.  _ Deep breaths, _ he told himself,  _ deep breaths, just like you practiced. _

Gavin lifted the lid to the box. “Oh, nice. I’ve been needing more guitar picks, though…” he lifted them out of the box and counted out six, all different colors. “You know my favorite color is blue, right? You didn’t have to get all the colors of the rainbow.”

Gabe’s mouth was suddenly extremely dry. He tried to swallow and calm his nerves, but nothing was working. “Well, uh, funny thing about that is...is,” he clenched and unclenched his fists, trying to focus. He had been practicing for this moment for ages, but that didn’t make it any easier.

Gavin put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, are you okay? You look like you’re gonna be sick.”

Gabe took a deep breath. “I’m fine.” He wanted to give a reassuring smile, but it was as if all the muscles in his face had stopped working.

“Are you sure? I can go grab you some water or something-” he started to stand up from Gabe’s bed.

“No!” Gavin gave him a curious look but sat back down. “I mean, there’s- there’s just something really important I need to tell you.”

“Okay…”

“The reason that all those guitar picks are rainbow,” he gestured to the box Gavin was holding, “is because I’m… I-I’m…”  _ JUST SAY IT! LIKE YOU PRACTICED! GAY! YOU’RE GAY!  _ He looked up and met Gavin’s eyes, which showed a small spark of understanding in them. He felt his heart beating in his throat, and suddenly he wasn’t thinking. “I’m in love with you.”

It took a half second for Gabe to register what he had just said. His eyes widened, and his hand flew to his mouth as if he could take the words back in. He felt his chest constrict, and he  _ really  _ couldn’t breathe. This was even more terrible than the time he had tried to come out to his dad.

Gavin just looked confused as he searched Gabe’s face for some sort of explanation. “Wh-”

“I didn’t mean that! I-I meant to say something else. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I take it back.” This was going worse than Gabe could have ever imagined. His chest started heaving. He felt like he was going to throw up and pass out and spontaneously combust all at once. Oh god, he was having a panic attack, wasn’t he? He put his head in his hands and wished a hole would open up and swallow him right then and there.

“Gabe? Are you okay? It’s fine, I don’t care if you’re-”

“Just leave!”

“What? No, let me stay. We still have band practice, and-”

Gabe looked up with tears in his eyes. “I said, LEAVE. Now!”

Gavin nodded and slowly stood up. He put his gifts from Gabe in his bag and paused at the door to Gabe’s room. “Are you sure-”

Gabe felt a tear run down his face, and he quickly wiped it away. “Yes, I’m sure.”

He heard his door open and close and the sound of Gavin’s footsteps going downstairs. Only once he heard the front door close did Gabe allow himself to break down, though. He laid down on his bed and started silently sobbing, clutching the necklace Gavin had given him to his chest. His whole body was shaking as he curled up into a ball, wishing that he could just disappear.


End file.
